Welcome to the communities

Legally its fine

The issue will be the risk of developing a "them and us" culture. HQ getting all the perks and the poor troops out in the field doing all the work.

I would definitely make it clear everyone is welcome to attend and perhaps if field teams have quarterly meetings make sure these coincide. Of course most wont attend but that's less of an issue.

As far as possible make the events inclusive so people in remote places "could" get involved - by dressing up etc and get them to send in pics . Most wont but again that's not the point.

I dont think it will cause huge issues but it does have potential to create a bit of a divide in the workforce IMO. My last company used to do this, and, understandably I think, the remote workers/other offices used to say regularly that they felt left out and "them and us" was mentioned a few times.

I suggested that on the days when we did similar we let the remote workers leave a an hour or two early depending on what we were doing, on the proviso that they 'promised' to use the time to do something nice for themselves (I suggested buying some £5 gift cards for Starbucks or similar so they could grab a coffee and a cake/whatever on their way home but this was knocked back as a step too far!). Whether they did or not who knows, but they definitely appreciated the sentiment and no-one at head office felt this was unfair as they had their hour or two off from working while they were doing the activities.

As a side, if you do put something out about still getting work completed, be ready for the workers who are busy, or say they are, to not take part because they feel they can't, and they may or may not be very vocal about this! Suppose it depends on what the work is and how its carried out to be fair, but possibly something to consider.

Welcome to the community Clair.

Excellent fun.
Not sure how it will "build an engaged workforce & improve communications", but like Keith I rather think that the staff elsewhere will raise their collective eyebrows, shake their heads and think some not very polite things about HQ. ;-)

I'm not sure there'd be a particularly engaged workforce if part of the organisation are excluded from attending engagement-building activities.

thank you everyone I know there may be an us and them function by creating this and maybe further down the line we can be inclusive. at the moment no staff are engaged or working together so want to start somewhere

I like the £5 Starbucks idea a lot as it's something we can offer.

In reply to Clair Hicks:

You could do a "class bear" type thing for the remote workers to get them involved in their own event.

Hear me out!

If they are out and about, think of ALL the crazy, grown up (but not distasteful obviously!) things a branded (if possible, or get one in company colours) Company Bear can get up to with their Human companion. Each worker who wants to take part gets Bear for a week and has to keep a diary (not too much, just a few paragraphs) of what mischievous Bear gets up to with his Human while they are out and about working and with their family, they could even get customers involved if its that sort of culture, good for PR? This diary is shared on company facebook page or intranet, newsletter, just emailed round staff etc

Employees back at H/O get a glimpse of what the remote workers day is like, its a bit (LOT) of fun, gets people thinking about how others work, may improve comms and relations as the H/O people will feel they know a bit more about the remote workers and creates a conversation point if they do liaise with the remote workers at any point. And it's just something for them :)

You may need to set some ground rules, no hidden negative comments about work, keep it clean etc

Business I work for currently only has a couple of remote workers, a couple of hours away, but they do like to be invited to any staff events that we hold and would feel a bit put out if they weren't invited. We only tend to hold big events that get everyone together.

In reply to Samantha:

This sounds like a great idea for an organization that already has the fundamentals in place.